“When a piece of music is good, it gets a lot of claps,” Jigneshbhai said last weekend. At the cafe, the instrumental music of Ustad Zakir Hussain was being played. Swami and I were engrossed in listening to it.
“When a piece of music is great, it gets silence,” Jigneshbhai added, and that struck us.
For the past five or ten minutes, the music being played by Ustad was so good that it had stunned us into silence. Swami still didn’t say anything, which meant it had done the same to him. Jigneshbhai, to our surprise, continued.
“It is easy to compose and deliver music that gets claps. It is the work of a true genius to compose and deliver music that gets silence,” he said. And then added, finally, “No claps, no words, only a spellbound audience.”
There was no disagreement we had on this. We noticed that the wealthy man in the sprawling bungalow had also been listening to the instrumental music being played as well as Jigneshbhai’s remarks.
He walked towards our table and left us with his two pence on it.
“A work of art that stops you in your step, stuns you beyond words. That is divinity in action. Rare and blessed. Eternal and timeless. Waah Ustad.”
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